Early Life

Kinnaman was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden. His mother, a therapist, is Swedish. His father, Steve Kinnaman (originally David Kinnaman), is an American who was drafted during the Vietnam War and deserted the military from his stationing in Bangkok. Joel has both Swedish and American citizenship due to his father’s United States birth. Joel’s father, whose family was from the American Midwest, is of English, Irish, Scottish, and German descent, while Joel’s mother is Jewish (she is descended from Ukrainian Jewish immigrants to Sweden). He has five sisters, one of whom is actress Melinda Kinnaman (his half-sister). Through his childhood, Kinnaman learned two languages as he “[spoke] English with my dad and Swedish with my mom”. Kinnaman spent a year in Texas as a high school exchange student.

Career

Kinnaman started his acting career in 2002, taking part in a thriller called The Invisible and enrolling in the Swedish Academic School of Drama in Malmö, where actors such as Michael Nyqvist have studied. He graduated in 2007, and afterwards attracted the attention of Swedish media in a stage adaptation of Crime and Punishment. Kinnaman then went on to star in nine Swedish movies in 14 months. He made his breakthrough in the 2009 film, I skuggan av värmen. and his success continued with a role in six films of the Johan Falk film series. He was then cast in the film, Easy Money (released January 2010), which brought him attention in Sweden and the rest of the world. Looking to expand his acting career, Kinnaman hired an agent in the United States, the same agent that represents Johnny Depp. It was announced in the spring of 2010 that he would be making his international film debut in the thriller, The Darkest Hour, which began filming in Moscow in June 2010 and was released in December 2011.Beginning in April 2011, Kinnaman had a starring role as Detective Stephen Holder in the AMC television series, The Killing.

Kinnaman was one of the contenders for the lead roles in Thor (2011) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). He told the newspaper Östran that he “was really close to getting the lead role in Mad Max 4. It was between me and two others, and the one who got the role was Tom Hardy, who played the lead role in Bronson. […] [The director] was very pleased [with my performance] – but they needed someone who seemed older.” Regarding Thor, he has stated that “they wanted someone with a Scandinavian touch. There were only five candidates left in the end, but unfortunately I couldn’t fly over [to the United States] and do test shoots with Natalie Portman, because it would interfere with the filming of Easy Money“. Although Kinnaman admits that he is eager to work and become recognized in America, he says that “I absolutely don’t feel that I have to take any role that I can get just because it is the United States. I’m looking for something interesting, I’m still young in my artistry, and I must dare to do things even when there’s a risk for failure”.

Kinnaman reunited with Easy Money director Daniel Espinosa in his Hollywood debut, 2012’s Safe House. On 3 March 2012, it was confirmed that Kinnaman would play the lead role of Alex James Murphy/Robocop in the 2014 remake of 1987’s RoboCop. The film was released in February 2014. Kinnaman is set to play Rick Flag Jr. in the upcoming Warner Bros. and DC Comics adaptation of Suicide Squad, directed by David Ayer.

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Joel Kinnaman Network aims to be your ultimate online resource for all things related to actor, Joel Kinnaman. You may know him for his roles in several films such as the Easy Money trilogy, the 2014 RoboCop remake, Suicide Squad, and in television shows such as The Killing and House of Cards. Thank you for visiting the site, and come back soon for the latest updates on Joel. Please note that this site will stay free from gossip articles and paparazzi photos.

Altered Carbon is set in the 25th century when the human mind has been digitized and the soul is transferable from one body to the next. Takeshi Kovacs (Kinnaman), a former elite interstellar warrior known as an Envoy who has been imprisoned for 500 years, is downloaded into a future he'd tried to stop. If he can solve a single murder in a world where technology has made death nearly obsolete, he'll get a chance at a new life on Earth.

Three Seconds

Three Seconds follows reformed-criminal and former special ops soldier Pete Hoffman who, in order to free himself from jail and return to his wife and daughter, has been working undercover for crooked FBI handlers to infiltrate the Polish mob’s drug trade in New York. In a final step towards freedom, Hoffman must return to the one place he’s fought so hard to leave, Bale Hill Prison, where his mission becomes a race against time when a drug deal goes wrong and threatens his identity as a mole.

Hanna

The Amazon drama is described as a high-concept thriller and coming-of-age drama which follows the journey of an extraordinary young girl as she evades the relentless pursuit of an off-book CIA agent and tries to unearth the truth behind who she is.

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